Avengers: Spellbound Hero
by xXScarlettMastersXx
Summary: When Loki's trip to Germany is interrupted by two seemingly stupid mortals, things get interesting. "Well, if horny helmet didn't interrupt my date night, this wouldn't have happened." Honestly, his life. He never thought he'd miss titans and giants, and those gods-awful prophecies,but he'd take those over alien invasions and these misfits any day. Warning:Fem!Percy Male!Annabeth
1. Chapter I - The Green Eyed Girl

**Hey, guys! So I haven't touched this fic in a looooong time. At least online. I've been continuing it on paper, but I've decided if I'm going to try to just jump right in, I'm not going to do it looking at old, shoddy work so REVAMP!**

 **...again**

 **I've already redone the first couple of chapters, and hope you all don't hate me for forgetting for so long. I don't think I could have restarted this though without all the positive and constructive feedback I got from you all. It's been a long time and I've gone through a bit that held me back, but I am coming back and with a vengeance so buckle up and get ready for a complete revamp and retelling of a Spellbound Hero.**

 **This fic is being cross posted on and Archive of Our Own, all under xXScarlettMastersXx, and I'll be trying to respond to all comments at the beginning of each chapter for this site, starting with the ones posted after I last updated.**

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 **Reviews**

 **Guest:** **You're welcome! And I feel your pain on that. If that's a constant complain I could put some recommendations in the bottom.**

 **Guest: Well, I was a little slow, but I did it!**

 **Thank you again for all the reviews! Special shoutout to NinerFlower.94, who called me out for my bad dialogue insertion way back when, and sankrisid23, who gave me such a burst of confidence and good questions to consider. Also shoutout to , for always pushing me to work on these things. You really are an inspiration, and ask questions that I didn't even consider!**

 **~SM**

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 **CHAPTER I**

Loki walked down the stairs, overlooking the waddling mortals. He watched as they mingled amongst themselves, unaware of the events that were about to unfold. Grinning, he listened as his team moved into position, his eyes already on his target.

"Ready, boss?" Hawkeye called through the coms. Loki nodded his piece for the security camera. "Let's get going, shall we?" he added, moving forward and darting down the stairs. Just as he reached the base of the marble staircase, a woman in a short but elegant black dress bumped into him. One of the loose chains that were hanging off her shoulder, catching on his staff and preventing him from moving forward.

"Sorry," she said, trying to unlatch it. However, before she could grip it, her sharp red heels caught on the extending train of her dress, toppling her off balance. He grabbed her shoulders and deftly unhooked it, only stopping to momentarily glare into her sea green eyes before moving past. He heard the girl huff, but paid no mind. Annoying little sprite, he thought, before he swung his staff into the nearest guard and grabbed the target by the lapel of his suit jacket. The silvertounged man casually threw him on the stone table in the middle of the room as it erupted in chaos.

The crowd around him gasped and screamed as he took out his instrument and plunged it into the man's eyes. He grinned at the fleeing guests. Squeamish things, mortals were.

Everyone ran as the man twitched shuttered. Screams ricocheted off the walls as the crowd fled. He stood over the body with a mischievous gleam in his eye and faint smirk on his face.

He caught the eyes of one of the fleeing guests and couldn't help but grin again. A familiar sea green stared back before the girl was tugged away by a blonde boy.

The mortals all dashed about him, and he couldn't help but laugh at their expressions, even as something pounded in the back of his mind.

He stepped out of the gala, a smirk on his face as people ran by him in fear. Some things never got old. His suit gleamed as it transformed into his armor, his horned helmet appearing into view.

"Hold it right there!" a police officer yelled. Other police cars whirled behind him. An ambulance siren went off in the background. He didn't say a word as he shot a blast of energy, sending them all flying and the people into fits of terror.

Flashing illusions of himself, he raised his arms to address the masses. "Kneel before me," he commanded over their screams.

When no one complied, he tried again, flashing in front of the gala steps. "I said, **KNEEL**!" He shouted as he slammed his staff into the ground. They rushed to do so then. Well, fear always was the best motivator.

"Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state?" he asked, walking among them, his doubles standing guard around them.

"It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity."

He raised his arms out as if to bless them, and they all bowed their heads, though he wasn't sure it was in prayer. "You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." He could practically smell the fear that was radiating of the humans.

An old man stood in the far corner, barely by himself before he could speak, another voice rose over the crowd.

"It takes a lot more to get me on my knees."

He turned to stare into the vibrant eyes of the girl before. Her blonde friend from before was nowhere to be seen, but she did not seemed worried. The people beside her tried to tug her to the floor, but she shrugged them off, never breaking eye contact. "And definitely not to people like you."

He grinned patronizingly at her, stepping away from the old man. "There are no people like me," he said, but she raised her chin. "There will always be idiots like you, who think they can get whatever they want with power and attitude. I speak from experience when I say they never win." She smirked at him, moving a hand to her hip, "at least not against me."

He snarled but contained himself, instead raising his scepter. "Look to your young one. Let her be an example." Yet before he could fire a blast, it was knocked out of her face.

Blinking, he turned to see the woman's friend expertly twirling a gleaming bronze dagger.

"Well, aren't you interesting," he murmured as the girl unstrapped a longer knife for herself. He fired another bold, but the girl bent backwards, ducking out of the crowd around them took the chance to rush away at his distraction, blocking his view of them.

He pushed one of the barreling mortals out of the way, just in time to see the girl rush him. Quickly, she ducked under his swing and slashed his side, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her partner protecting the citizens from any stay blasts. He growled at at the inconvenience. Theses mortals were ruining his plans. They were not who he was supposed to be fighting.

Summoning illusions forward, he made the copies of himself attack her, storming her on every side. Yet each only getting slashed and dissipated in a flurry of glinting bronze and and green magic.

"What, Horned Head?" she called as another one faded into nothing but emerald sparks, "scared of a little girl and her glades?" She kicked another out of her way, slicing its head with another glinting blade on the heel of her shoe.

Yelling in anger, he appeared by her side, slashing her and throwing her into the stairs of the building. He walked over to her as she struggled to get out of the mini crater she had created.

"SEPH!" he friend screamed from behind, but was too far way to help, people still rushing about like fools.

He grabbed the girl by her onyx hair and raised her to his level. "What are you?!" he snarled, but she just smirked and kneed his chest before kicking him in the face, still clutching her side, knife long ago abandoned.

He touched the cut the blade in her shoe had left before backhanding her back into the crater. "No matter," Loki growled, taking a step back and raising his scepter again. He fired at the still dazed girl.

…only for it to bounce off a blue, red, and white shield. Loki dodged as the blast ricocheted, but a repulser shot his hand holding the scepter, and another at his gut, knocking him off his feet and away from the injured party.

"You know," Captain America said, watching as the demigod stood again. "the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

The Mischief Maker laughed as he faced the man again. "Ah, the soldier," he replied, "the man literally out of time."

"I'm not the one out of time," the Captain retorted as the quintet hovered above him. A suit of armor landed near him in a crouch, before weapons deployed out of the shoulder blades. The repulsers on the hands and chest ready to go.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," the metallic voice said. He stepped back, arms up and his armor disappearing in another light show, leaving nothing but a suit behind.

The weapons disarmed. "Good move," the metal man said, before punching the demigod and knocking him out.

The Captain looked from the unconscious demigod to the amour. "Iron Man," he nodded, and the suit nodded back. "Captain."

"Sephone!" another voice cut in behind them.

A blonde boy pushed past the Captain, rushing to the crater in the staircase, Iron Man and Captain America following slowly behind but forgotten.

He scooped the girl up in his arms, frowning in concern as she moaned but sat up. "Hi there," he said softly, his lips twitching into a soft smile.

The girl, Sephone, returned it, reaching up to put a hand on his chest. "Hey there, stranger," she groaned as she tried to sit up. "Still think it was a good idea not to bring weapons? Ugh, everytime we go out to do this 'normal' thing, shit like this happens."

The boy rolled his eyes, but pulled her up more into his lap. "If I remember correctly, we both had weapons on us tonight. So no one really paid attention to that rule."

She grumbled, but didn't seem to have much of an argument. "Still think we should have just gone to the carnival," he mumbled, grunting when she hit his chest.

A cough interrupted the two, and they turned to see two awkward superheroes standing aside, looking out of place.

"Let me help you, miss," Captain America insisted, moving to check her wound. The boy tightened his grip on her

"Thank you, but it's fine," she maintained, clutching the less colorful blonde. The heroes exchanged looks of confusion, but did not move any closer

"No, thank you," he returned, "for doing that. You didn't have to."

She shrugged. She detached herself from the stormy-eyed blond and moved to stand, still holding on to her companion. "I sort of did. I mean, who else was going to stay up to a bully with a glowing stick?"

Tony laughed as the green-eyed beauty got to her feet, lifting his face plate. "I like her," he mock whispered to Steve, who didn't pay him any mind.

"I do too," a voice said from behind them. Everyone swiveled around to see Natasha standing there with her hands on her hip, one very close to a gun at her side. The annoying Asgardian from before was nowhere in sight, assumedly already on the now landed jet. "What I'm wondering is how you learned to fight like that," she said taking a step closer, looking at them closely. They couldn't have been more than eighteen.

The girl opened her mouth to answer, narrowing her eyes along side her partner. Her gown fluttered around her as she took a step forward, before her eyes widened and she doubled over, clutching her stomach.

"Steph," her friend called urgently, catching her around the waist, and slowly cradled her in his arms. When she removed her hand, it was caked in blood.

"Ow," she grimaced, resting her head against the blonde, making eye contact. They seemed to communicate with a few more expressions as he propped her against him, but said no more.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he looked put to see Captain America standing there.

He ran his eyes over her, moving their hands away from the wound. "We can take her to our medical at our base. It's the least we could do." The girl sighed, catching a look from the boy, both surprisingly unworried for such a serious wound, before nodding to the man.

He stood with the girl, swinging her bridle style with practiced ease. He smiled at her light laugh despite the pain it probably caused her. "Lead the way," he told the Captain, seemingly unexerted by the added weight.

Once they were firmly seated, and Seph was secured, Tony turned to the still fussing boy.

"Not to be rude or anything, but I know Bloody Mary's name over here, but don't know who's playing the young Malfoy just yet." The boy rolled his eyes, but didn't seemed phased by the wording, nor moved to answer. That is until Seph nudged him.

He sighed and turned to face the metal man. "Andrew," he said, holding out his hand, "The name's Andrew Chase and this is Persephone Jackson."

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 **Okay! So that was the second-first chapter? Well, revamped first chapter, and I hope you** **guys liked it! Once again, thanks to every one who supported this fic, both in reviews and likes, and silent applause.**

 **I promise to be back with more, and in a timely manner.**

 **Please Review!**

 **~SM**


	2. Chapter II - And Then There's That Guy

**Hey, guys! I'm back! I know it's been a month, but that might be the new period for updates. We'll have to see. First off thank you to all of y'all for your support and suggestions, and sorry to anyone who didn't know it was still gender bent. I forgot to include that this time around.**

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 **Reviews**

 **KappaSigma14 : Thank you! Glad to see you back then!**

 **Gh0ster: Yeah, sorry about that, but I'm glad you're enjoying it. Hopefully, you'll stick around.**

 **eggplant: Not rude at all. I should have put a warning in the summary for genderbender. Hopefully, it was okay anyways.**

 **Yukatana: Why yes you are! ;)**

 **Kurumakit: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!**

 **Daughter of Trickery: You bet ya!**

 **Bogorm123: Nice to be back :D**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or the Avengers. Sad, I know.**

 **¯\\_(** **ツ** **)_/¯**

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The ride to the base was the most awkward thing Tony had experienced in a while.

Natashalie had handcuffed the demented demigod and left to fly the jet while the Happy Couple™ sat a few seats away from him, whispering sweet nothings to the point where Tony could _feel_ the cavities forming.

He was going to be sick.

The good Captain had taken a seat beside him with the failed villain just a skip away.

"I don't like it," Steve murmured. Tony turned to look at him. "What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily or the PDA levels those two are giving off?"

"Wha-? No!" the soldier sputtered, face red. However, Tony couldn't help but notice his gaze avoid the sickening-adorable display beside them.

Before he could comment again — and, oh god, the jokes he had for that one — Steve cleared his throat, ignoring the amused look Tony shot him. "I just— I don't remember it being that easy," he sighed, glancing at the demigod in question. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, it's not as if he went down without some bruises," Tony said, nudging his head towards the prisoner in question. "In fact," he said turning back Steve, "You did pretty well for someone who hasn't practiced in a while. What's your thing? Pilates?" he joked.

"What?" Steve asked, confusion painting his face. Tony shrugged in response. "It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things doing time as a Capsicle."

Steve's jaw tensed and tightened. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," he commented. The billionaire only shrugged again, ruffling to cower. "Yeah, well, there's a lot Fury doesn't tell you."

Before Steve could retort, lightening began to cackle and thunder boomed as a storm suddenly overtook the jet. From the cockpit, Natasha's brow furrowed as she checked her gear. "Where's this coming from?" she muttered.

Steve noticed the girl, Persephone, tense in her friend's arms. Steve blushed as she watched the two lean away from each other. "I thought Zeus said it was safe to fly now," she remarked warily, whatever they were whispering about forgotten. The boy just shrugged, holding her a bit tighter.

Loki sat up in his seat, eyeing the ceiling warily. Tony noticed as well. "Wha'ts the matter?" Scared of a little lightning?" Steve probed, ignoring the raven girl's mumbled "Wouldn't blame you."

Loki shrugged. "I'm just not overly for of what follows," the blue-eyed man quipped, shifting in his seat.

A jolt came from the roof as something rocked the ship in midair. Tony quickly put on his helmet and stood as everyone clutched on to something (or someone in the teenagers case), riding out the rest of the bumps to the quinjet. Stocking forward, Tony reached over to open the rear hatch.

"What are you doing?" Steve shouted over the rush of wind. Tony ignored him as a towering blond man dressed in armour and a cape jumped down onto the ramp.

Tony took a step forward, but before he could get a word in, Thor threw his hammer at him, causing the tin man to fly backwards across the deck. He moved to grab his brother, but a dagger imbedded itself in the wall near by.

"Not so fast," Andrew called, drawing the man's attention. Seph stood beside him, gladius drawn. "You're not going anywhere," she added, taking a step forward.

Thor grunted as he saw the soldier inching towards his shield. "You have no business with this, mortals. This is a matter of Asgard." Seth snorted at the term but didn't move to back down.

"Yeah, well, we've got some beef with him to so he's not going anywhere just yet," Tony said, trying to dislodge the hammer currently crushing his chest plate.

"It is not up to you," Thor growled, roughly grabbing his brother by the arm. It was then they noticed just how close the two foreigners were to the opened door. Before anyone could get a word in edgewise, he dove out the hatch, brother secure in his arms while Mjolnir joined them in their escape.

Tony cursed as he stood up. "Now there's that guy," he moaned. Persephone approached with Andrew, looking out of the entrance as Tony stepped forward.

"Think the guy's a friendly?" Steve shouted. Andrew snorted from beside him. "Didn't seem to friendly."

"Doesn't matter," Tony called. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract is lost." He turned to jump off, ignoring the questioning looks Persephone and Andrew sent them.

Steve caught him by the arm before he could move forward. "Stark! We need a plan of attack!"

Shrugging his hand off, Tony took another step forward, maintaining eye contact with the lifted face plate. "I have a plan, captain." The face plate slid shut. "Attack."

Steve growled before moving past the couple. "Sorry," he muttered as he grabbed a parachute. "I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha warned from cockpit.

"I don't see how I can," he responded, pulling on the pack. "These guys come from legends. They're basically gods," the assassin tried, but the man shook his head. "There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." and with that he jumped, not noticing the looks the couple shared behind him.

"Wow," Andrew said, staring at the hole both of the superheroes had jumped from. "People who are actually more reckless and compulsive than you." Seph snorted. "I didn't think it was possible."

Andrew leaned his head against hers, still watching the opened hatch. "You're going after them, aren't you?"

"Yep."

He groaned, but pecked her cheeked before dislodging from her side.

"Great," he grumbled, moving toward the cockpit. "Ill ask the spy lady to turn around."

"Love you!"

Just one normal date, was that too much to ask?

xXxXx

Crashing into a mountainside, Thor threw Loki into the rocks. Raising Mjolnir, he approached his brother angrily.

"Where is the Tesseract?" he intoned. Loki laughed and spat blood out at the Thunderer's feet. "I missed you too, brother dear." Thor growled.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" he roared as Loki stood and dusted himself off. "You should thank me," Loki muttered tightly before looking up at his supposed brother.

"With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Alfather have to muster to conjure you here to your precious _Earth_?" he hissed. Thor dropped his hammer, grabbing at Loki's shirt frong.

"I thought you dead!" he spat. Loki only grinned, pressing closer to the man. "Did you mourn?" he whispered in an unbelieving tone. "We all did," Thor insisted. "Our father—"

" _Your_ father," Loki interrupted bitterly. The God of Thunder let go of his brother, continuing as if he never spoke. "We played together. We fought together. Do you remember none of that?" the blonde demanded.

"I remember a shadow," Loki groused, picking himself up again. "I remember living in the shade of your greatness, you tossing me into an abyss. I, who was, and should be king," he spat. The raven's face became redder as he grew increasingly angry.

"So you take the world I love a recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor challenged. "No, the earth is under my protection, Loki," he turned away, not facing him again. "You will not touch it."

Loki laughed at his back. "What a _marvelous_ job you're doing with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, as why should I not?" he shrugged.

Thor looked at him disappointed. "You think yourself above them?" The look Loki shot him said as much, eyebrow raised and eyes slanted as if to ask where in the conversation he lost the other, but he didn't answer verbally again. "Then you miss the truth of ruling. A throne would suit you ill."

Loki's face contorted in rage, his blue eye flashing dangerously at his brother's words. "I've seen worlds you've never even heard about," he hissed. "I have grown, Odinson, in my exile, and I have seen the true power of the Tesseract. When I wield it-!"

"Who showed you this power?" Thor interrupted, grabbing the liesmith by his tunic. "Who controls the would-be king?" he demanded. Loki only laughed. "I am king!"

"Not here!" Thor roared. "You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream! You _come home!_ "

A small chuckle slipped from Loki's lips, a poisonous smile taking its place. "I. Don't. Have it."

Thor snarled, summoning Mjolnir as Loki continued with a grin. "You need the Cube to bring me home. But I've sent it off, I know not where." His laughter burned the Thunderer's ear as he threw him away. "You listen well, brother," Thor roared, raising his arm.

…only for Iron Man to slam into him, knocking them both off the mountainside.

Propping himself against the rocks, Loki put a hand to his ear, leaning forward. "I'm listening," he grinned, his laughter echoing off the cliffside.

Thor yelled as the two crashed into the forest. Rolling to a crouch, he gazed at the metal man, already standing a distance away, helmet popped open for a face to be seen.

"Don't touch me!" Thor commanded. "Don't touch my stuff," Tony fired back, glaring at the man, who more than happily returned the stare.

"You have no idea what you are dealing with," Thor ground out, standing up to face the other man. Tony just titled his head to the side, feigning ignorance. "Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you wealth her drapes?"

"This is beyond you, metal man! Loki must face Asgardian justice," The demigod exclaimed.

Tony only shrugged in response. "He gives up the Cube, and he's all yours," he insisted, taking a step forward. "Until then, stay out of my way…tourist." With that the helmet clamped down as he moved to walk away.

In one quick move, Thor there Mjolnir, knocking the man into a tree, snapping it in half with the force. "Okay," Tony said, stepping out from the wreckage, "let's play."

Neither of them paid mind to the mountaintop as Loki watched in amusement as the two heroes 'fought for him.' He wished he had some of this Midgardian popcorn that Barton had described. He believed it was made for situations like this.

Thor raised his hand, summoning his hammer back. He swung Mjolnir, calling a ray of lighting to follow. Before he could land the hit, Iron Man fired his repulsers, knocking the mighty Asgardian into a tree. "Hmm, oops?" he drawled from inside the suit.

Thor dodging another blast, kneeled to the ground before summoning another blast of lightning and redirecting it to Tony. There was a flash of light and sparks as the suit stopped moving, taking the hit. Tony grunted from inside the suit watching the display jar and shake before stabilizing.

Finally Jarvis spoke. " _Power now at 400% capacity_." The AI said, almost smugly. "How about that?" Tony called. With almost no time in between he fired a shot from his hand, pushing Thor to his knees. The two rushed at each other, meeting in the middle and flying upward before shooting down towards the earth.

Landing, Tony shot as much energy as he could through his unibeam. Thor, on the other hand, only blocked it with his hammer before head butting the suit, sending the other sliding across the forest. "Talk about a hard head," Tony gasped.

His eyes widened as he looked up to see Thor about to bring his hammer down. Activating his hand thrusters, Iron Man shot off, skidding across the ground and tripping the demigod over. Thor turned for him only to be be tackled by Iron Man crashing into his back.

The two grappled until Thor was able to push him off, raising his hammer to strike as Iron Man held up his hand to return the blow, only for Captain's shield to ricochet off the two fighters.

"That's enough!" he yelled, shoving between the two. In any other time, his twig filled and muddy appearance might have been amusing, but the two brawlers had eyes for no one but each other.

"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing he-" he started before Thor cut him off. "I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes!"

"Then prove it," The Captain snapped. "Put the hammer down," he continued firmly. From behind him, he could _hear_ Iron Man shaking his head.

"Um, yeah, no. Bad Call. He loves his hammer," Tony said. With a growl, Thor backhanded Iron Man, sending the suit skidding a few feet.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" he roared at the first avenger. They both ignored Tony's call of "I told you so!" as Thor approached the blonde with his weapon raised.

Before any of them could make a move further, the wind dispersed as the quinjet hovered the trees, and shot was fired from the craft, causing the first avenger and Asgardian to separate as the hatched opened yet again to reveal Seph with her hand on her hips, guarding a newly bound Loki.

Before any of the men could speak a rustling came from the bushes. In a flash, a blade lodged itself in the tree next to Iron Man Man and another at the feet of both Thor and Steve, causing them to jump back.

Andrew emerged from the bramble suit jacket missing and sleeves rolled up, tossing another knife in the air and catching it, though where he kept them was anyone's guess. Looking at them with an unimpressed eyebrow, he addressed them cooly. "Are you done yet? Or do I get to have some target practice?"

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 **There we go! Second chapter completed! I hope you guys liked it! I know it's been a month, but with all the edits I made and reviews, it took a while. Thank you for all the support! I'm glad to see you guys are enjoying it.**

 **Thanks for reading and please review!**

 **~SM**


	3. Chapter III - A Meeting of Minds

**Hey guys! It's been a little less than a month since I last responded, but I'm glad I'm back! Sorry for the delay.** **wasn't letting me upload this chapter to the Doc Manager, let alone post it. I literally had to retype this chapter letter by letter, and probably came the closest to breaking my laptop than I ever have in my entire life.**

 **...Seriously, I don't think I would have my laptop would have survived if that didn't work.**

 **However, the problem's all solved! I tried making this chapter a bit longer than the last one, and hopefully more fun. Thanks again for all the support on this story! I love reading the comments, and they've all been so great!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or the Marvels Avengers franchise.**

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 **PERSEPHONE ||**

When the jet landed all Seph could do was run off, stab wound be damned.

Not walk off, not get caught up in the sights. No. She was fucking sprinting off that deathtrap.

Oh, sure, the view was breathtaking, like no other, blah, blah, blah, but after being in the air for so long, the only thing she wanted was a sense of ground.

However, when she looked over the landing pad to see the probably hundreds of miles between her and the ocean — plenty of open air for Zeus to swat her out of the sky, she thought — she wanted to crawl back on the jet and demand they take her home.

With some effort and mild prodding from Andrew and a certain super soldier ("You were fine earlier! What happened?!" "Not a good flyer, ma'am?" "Not a good, above ground period, more like it."), they were able to wrangle her inside the station on board, where she could almost convince herself she was on land.

Despite the avid protest of both her and Andrew, they were corralled into separate rooms and given a change of clothes, doors locked until orders had been carried out. Though, there was an extra stop at the medbay for her.

However, due to the water bottle in the changing room along with her scrubs, there wasn't much left for the doctors to look at when she came out so she was herded away to another area with real clothes this time around.

No one seemed to care they were civilians or minors. Though she wasn't sure if she was bothered by how little anyone cared or how little she did. Stripping, she resigned herself to the new outfit.

Don't get her wrong, she thought, the sooner she got into something that covered her the better, but…She bit her lip as she changed.

The place just made her uneasy, and being separated from Andrew didn't help. Shimming into her shirt, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, looking at her reflection.

She'd exchanged her elegant dress for a tight grey t-shirt with leather sleeves and strips down the side, accompanied with tight black leather pants that seemed littered with pockets and a SHIELD issued jacket. Leaving the jacket, she resolved to just take whatever, Andrew had. They'd given her combat boots to wear in place of her red heels, and though she wasn't sure if they were offering them, she'd…appropriated a few knives and daggers that had been lying around…in the training hall she may have passed by. So it seemed like a free for all.

She didn't dream of grabbing a gun with her bad aim. Apollo, himself couldn't help her. Trust her, he'd tried, but she'd grabbed a few things for Andrew as well, in case he hadn't had the opportunity.

Her own bronze gladius was placed in a holster on her thigh and accompanied with one or two other borrowed knives in various places on her person.

As she walked through the halls of the helicarrier — and seriously, who named this thing? — she fiddled with Riptide, which had returned to her pocket on the pants' of her suit, making her way across the hall to where Andrew had been dragged off.

Just as she turned her head toward his door, the sound of marching echoed down the corridor. Twelve guards escorted Loki through the halls, three in front of him, three behind him, and three on each side.

A man in the lab beside her stopped to stare like the rest of them, catching the eyes of a smirking Loki before the madman's gaze passed over her, almost contemplatingly before he was shoved forward to where he was to be kept. The man quickly left afterward.

"Next time," Andrew said, appearing beside her. She jumped a foot in the air, swerving around to face her smirking boyfriend. "we're just going to go the movies and that's that."

"And ignore a summoning from the gods? I've been rubbing off on you," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. He huffed before rolling his eyes, and hugging her waist in return. "Well, it was Hera's summoning so I couldn't care less if I tried," he muttered, ignoring the crack of thunder in the distance.

She had an idea that this was what Hera had had in mind, and knew Andrew thought so too. It was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.

For now, though, Sephone just hummed in acknowledgement, contenting herself with admiring his own out fit.

While cat suit wasn't the right word, it was close. He had on slim tan cargo pants, and a very similar t-shirt to hers hat seemed normal, except the sleeves seemed to be made of thick material that showed off his arms in a way every girlfriend (and other specimen) had the right to appreciate, all hidden away under SHIELD cardigan.

There was matching SHIELD jacket tucked in the corner of his elbow as if waiting for her to take it. Happily, Seph removed it from his arms and slipped it on her own as they made their way towards the observation deck, which was a sight to behold.

Row after row of computers with accompanying lackey filled the sides. In the center was meeting table, just beneath a wall of floating blue screens where a stern woman with dark brown hair and a standard SHIELD uniform.

At the table sat Rogers — The Actual Captain America! Time to break out the trading cards…or get them — with Thor not so far away. Spy "Call me Romanoff" Lady sat a few seats away from Rogers just beneath Agent Lady while the —techie? scientist? — man from before sat in the seat closes to the Thor. Though Seph assumed that was only because it was also closest to the door. She could appreciate that.

They stood by the door as the video of a man in intimidating bondage gear tried (and failed) to interrogate the prisoner. The last thing they saw was Loki looking directly at the camera before the feed was shut off.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" the curly-haired main quipped. The air in the room was tense as everyone tried to focus on their next task.

Rogers only crossed his arms, ignoring the other's sarcasm. "Loki's going to drag this out, so Thor," he said turning to the demigod, "what's his play?"

The god of thunder raised his chin, scratching at his beard as he looked at the black screen. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not from Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I expect, for the Tesseract.

"An army…from space?" Rogers said incredulously. "Can't be harder than fighting earth itself," she grumbled under her breathe. The Captain, however, still heard her and turned towards her. "No offense, ma'am, but why are you two still here?"

"Excellent point," Andrew drawled as they entered the room properly, "not that you're not busy and all what with invading aliens and not that this hasn't been wonderful, but-"

"But we'd like to know if we could make our way home before shit hits the proverbial fan," Seph finished bluntly.

"After we contain the threat that's coming," Eyepatch demanded. The two demigods exchanged a look, but it was Steve, who spoke. "Sir, they're just kids and civilians at that."

"Kids who stood up against Loki and came out without a scratch." Madame Agent retorted raising an eyebrow. Roger's own brows furrowed in confusion as he glanced between Seph and the woman.

"From what I remember, Hill, the dame there got more than just a scratch."

"Then where is it captain?" Natasha asked, leaning forward. Seph couldn't help but dart her eyes nervously as Andrew rubbed the back of his neck, not looking the Captain in the eye either. "You've got some good medics on board," she tried.

Romonaff just raised an eyebrow, not buying it for a second. "They're good, but good enough to fix an open wound on your side in less then a few hours with no perceivable side effects." When the two made no counter argument she nodded and turned to the group at large.

"Exactly, look. Hill's right. We're gonna need all the help we can get." Andrew glared at the spy as she stared impassively at them.

"Now hold on," he demanded, his voice firm. "how about asking because I promise you will get nowhere by trying to hold us here against our will."

The man in the purple shirt shifted while the spy, Black Widow, just put her hands on the table. "Or what? Where will you go? Better yet, how far will you get before we get you back?"

"Try it, itty-bitty," Seph groused, about to jump the table just to get to her. The blonde held her back, gripping her shoulders as she tensed.

"We don't have time for this," Hill, apparently, interrupted. She turned to the two teens at the edge of the table, glare palpable even with the distance. "This will be everyone's fight soon enough. Sure you don't have to help, but from the looks you have family out there that you wouldn't want caught in the crossfire so help us make sure there's no fire to begin with. People with you training could be of real use to us."

Rogers didn't seem convinced, but turned to them with a comforting look on his face. "I understand why someone with little experience—"Her glare, which was much closer and just as strong, cut him off before he could go any further.

"Don't you dare question our ability. We've been through more than you know," she seethed, drawing back when Andrew placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Then you shouldn't have a problem with any of this," Natasha finished smoothly. Andrew shot her a glare and snapped, "Except the humans rights violation, right?"

"So," Bruce cut in. He could see where this was going, and that was nowhere fast. "He's building another portal, right? That would explain what he needs Erik Selvig for." From his own corner, Thor jolted at the name. "Selvig?" he questioned.

"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce explained.

"He's a friend." Thor replied with a firm shake of his head.

"Loki has him under some sort of spell," Natasha cut in, "along with one of ours."

"Wait, mind control?" Seph called, trying to keep a neutral face. She didn't think it was working. Steve shrugged.

"If you'd believe it," he said, turning back to the conversation. He almost missed the small snort that followed, though he knew he wasn't the only one to note the girl's bitter smile at her lap. "Yeah, I do," she breathed out through gritted teeth, barely audible if not for Steve's enhanced hearing, "more than you think."

"Okay, this is great and all, but I wanna know why he's here," Andrew piped up, pulling the Captain's attention away.

Thor frowned but faced the other blond. "What do you mean to say, young one?"

Andrew shrugged, leaning back in his chair, placing his arms solidly at the small of Seph's back. "I mean, I can't be the only one who thinks that it's a bit weird right? Look I might not know the whole story, but from what I've gathered from you guys," he said, gesturing to the table as a whole, "is that this guy is good. Beyond good. He was able to enter and leave your base at his will, taking important and loyal employees, and stay off the grid.

"Then suddenly he's on camera in Germany and we're able to take him down with no casualties and without him actually trying to fight back. I mean," Andrew chuckled, "the guy surrendered. Seems like a weird thing to do for someone as meticulous and crafty as this one. Not to mention, not human. Thor was taking hits from the Iron Man armor rather well in the forest, and while not Asgardian, Loki's people are said to be literally harder to break due to their time in the ice. So the question is-"

"What's he doing here, and do we have to be here when he does it?" Seth interrupted with a raised eyebrow aimed at the agents across her.

"They're's right," Steve managed, before Romanoff could respond. "The guy's not leading an army from here."

Bruce shrugged and took off his glasses. "I don't know," he said pausing absentmindedly. "I don't think we should be focusing too much on Loki though. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell the crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor rumbled. The offended look on his face almost made Seph laugh. "Loki may be beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

The Widow gave him a look, consisting of one raised eyebrow and a lot of judgment. "He killed eighty people in two days." At that Thor looked away, sheepish. "Ah, he's adopted," he relented embarrassedly.

"Okay, I'm confused."

The all turned to Seph who was looking at Thor with big disapproving eyes, arms crossed over her chest. "Is he your brother or not because bringing up the adoption papers makes him sound more like a family puppy that accidentally peed on the couch instead of your brother."

Thor tilted his head at her analogy. "I do not understand what you mean," he boomed consideringly. Honestly, he seemed to fit the puppy analogy better, looking more like a golden retriever than any god Seph had seen

Seph rolled her eyes, before leaning forward. "If he's your brother, he's your brother. Don't take it back every time you're embarrassed," she explained, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. "You don't make excuses in a family because then it's not a family. It's just lonely."

"Perhaps, you are right," Thor rumbled, properly chastised and remorseful.

From the other side of the table, Seph could feel Natasha staring at her from across the table. She turned to give the woman a glare of her own, but before she could reply, voices echoed from the hallway, coming closer to the deck.

Stark walked in, chatting seemingly one-sidedly with a man in a suit. He turned to the agent before entering the room, grabbing the guy's arm. "Seriously, one weekend, I'll fly you out there. Gotta keep the love alive," he stated before sauntering into the room.

"Another thing I don't understand," Bruce said, just as the billionaire began to descend the stairs, "It's about the mechanics. Iridium — what did they need Iridium for?"

"Well, it can be used as a stabilizing agent depending on the isotope and volatility of a project's nature," Andrew said with a shrug. Everyone stared at the boy just as he turned red. Stark just grinned at him as he made his way around the room. "Right you are, honey head. It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

Momentarily, he paused to pat Thor on the back as he breezed by, not taking a moment to stop moving. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

"Portal?" Andrew and Seph asked. No one answered them. Most looked as confused as they were, barely following the genius as he switched from topic to topic.

Andrew watched the man as he moved, never seeming to stop. Persephone grinned behind her hand, trying to smother an unladylike, but very Persephone-like snort. She didn't do such a good job if the wink Stark threw at them and the glare from Romanoff was anything to go by."And I thought I was the ADHD poster child," she said lowly. Andrew chuckled at her side.

Stark didn't pay them any mind again as he paraded around the room, too busy messing with the crew. "Raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails," he called as he walked onto the platform.

"What are we going to do?" Seph whispered as they continued watching the billionaire move around. The rest of his speech faded from their ears as the smile on Andrew's face did the same. The Athena boy sighed, "I'm not sure yet," he confided, his voice no louder than a murmur.

"We were always gonna get involved," he breathed, "just not so…" he tried to find the word. "Publicly?" the raven filled in. He nodded. "We'l figure it out." she declared softly, "we always do."

"Yeah," he said, "but how long until the others start trying to figure it out too?" Seph didn't respond, though she didn't get the chance.

"And you?" The Spider Spy — Spy Spider? Agent Spider? — called, jerking them out of their conversation.

"What?" Andrew asked, sitting up from beside her. Both of their cheeks turned red as they noticed everyone staring at them. The woman raised another unimpressed eyebrow. "you seem to know a lot about this stuff — thermonuclear astrophysics, that is."

"Oh," Andrew sighed in relief, "I guess, it interested me for a while, I thought of pursuing it."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve cut in, a little uncomfortable with he interrogation beside him. Banner shook his head. "No, he's got to heat the cube to a hundred twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

"Unless," Stark shook his head, "Selvig has figured out a way to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

Andrew's eyebrows shot up at the conversation. "Then he'd have Heavy Iron Fusion on any reactor. It wouldn't matter where he was or what he was using, though if it was to small of a receptor it could short circuit."

Tony spread his arms and rounded back to where the two sat, pulling them out of their seats as he stopped. "Finally!" he called, "People who speak English." He said as he shook their hands simultaneously.

"Is that what happened?"Steve commented the same time Seph said, "I think I'm speaking the wrong English." They were ignored.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Stark barreled on, having let got of the two's hand. "You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster," he continued nonplussed.

"Thanks?" the other bit out hesitantly.

Andrew whipped around, almost gripping. "Dr. Banner? As in Bruce Robert Banner? The Bruce Banner!"

Seph looked at the curly haired man curiously, a mischievous grin on her face. She snapped and pointed to the good doctor before facing her boyfriend. "Oh, yeah, isn't he like your brain crush or something?"

Andrew made a strange sound in the back of his throat, not taking his starstruck eyes off the scientist, though that didn't stop him from slapping her shoulder as she laughed.

"Banner is only here to track the cube," Pirate said as he walked up to the small group of brains. "But now," he continued, turning to the couple he'd picked up. "I'm think you should join them."

"And what will I do?" Seph asked as she spun her chair to face the man, ignoring the other blond's enthusiastic nod. Aye-Eyepatch didn't flinch at the question only firing back"What are you willing to do?"

Seph tilted her head, glancing at her captivated boyfriend for a second before turning back to the man in front of her, leather everything and all.

"Well, as much as I'd like to fight this civil rights violation," she started, rolling her eyes, "this seems pretty big, and it's not going away. Honestly, I'd rather help and know I tried than leave it up to a band of lunatics trying to work together for the first time."

"So is that a yes," the one eyed asked without asking.

Seph nodded. "It's a 'I'm going to rain hell down on anyone in my way' so I wouldn't be if I were you. I'll even see if I can get some friends to help. Besides," she continued, looking at where her boyfriend stood talking with his fellow geniuses,"as if I could drag him away."

"I'm sorry," Rogers cut in again, "but am I the only one that finds fault with letting a kid into this? Let alone any friend they may bring. This isn't a game. This is war, and it shouldn't be fought by children," He finished, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No, you're right," Andrew punctuated, tearing his eyes away from Banner to stare blankly at the Spangled Man with a Plan. "This is war, and whether or not it should or shouldn't be fought with children, the effects will be lived by them." Andrew turned to stand behind Seph chair, mimicking Roger's own pose, his face set in a stony mask as his eyes swirled like an angry storm. The girl leaned forward, propping her arms on the table and clasping her hand together as they both stared at him, an almost devious glint in her eyes that seemed to set off like a hurricane.

"Whatever you do now, will affect us for the rest of our lives so I rather fight for it than watch someone else potentially screw it up," Andrew broke off.

"And don't call us kids again," Seph interjected, smiling sweetly. "because like you said, this is war, and there are no kids in that, only young people."

No one said anything as the air seemed to literally thicken around them.

Then Thor laughed, the echo shaking the top of the very glass table. "We will make no mistake again," he capitulated. Romanoff, too, leaned back in her seat, lip quirking as she nodded towards the two. "Okay then," she relented, and the mood subside around them.

"Let's start with that stick of his," Rogers said, a bit softer, his eyes still trained on the two. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

Fury shrugged, walking up to his platform, "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube, and I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" The thunderer questioned. "I do not understand."

"I do," Steve blurted, looking slightly proud of himself despite Seph's answering laugh in the background. "I understood that reference." Andrew shot him an amused look, before rolling his eyes at his still laughing girlfriend. "I'd hope so. Come on, Toto. We're not in the 1940's anymore. Who hasn't seen the Wizard of Oz?"

"Well,"Tony said, wrapping an arm around each of his new lab partners. "I think we're gonna have some fun. Shall we play?" he asked, steering them out of the room.

Thor had already been snatched away by the agent Stark had walked in with, the two moving away to converse elsewhere, Andrew pausing to place a peck on the raven's forehead.

"Do you want to spar?" Romanoff said, materializing at Sephone's side. The girl jumped, glancing between the seat the woman had previously been and where she was now with narrowed eyes before nodding cautiously. "Sure," she drew out, not taking her eyes of the red head, letting her lead the way.

They paused at the door, glancing back at the only one still seated at the table, staring at seemingly nothing.

"You coming?" she called, but Rogers shook his head.

With a shrug, she sprinted ahead to catch up with the Widow as Rogers watched them leave, before following leaving as well.

In the corner of the room, unbeknownst to everyone, a technician watched as everyone dispersed, Hill and Fury both focusing on the screens in from top them. Ever so discreetly, the man turned back to his screen, another game of Galaga reloading on it.

* * *

And it's done! Hope you guys liked it! Within the next two chapters, it's really going to take off from the original story line, even more than in the last one. If you guys have any suggestions or notes, don't forget to tell me! Overall, I'm happy that you're happy!

Thanks for reading, and please review!

~SM


	4. Chapter IV - Hate Your Allies

**I'm back! I'm so sorry about missing that September update, but things have been hectic on my side of the equation what with preparing for college, family obligations, and impromptu sessions of writer's block, but it's done! And just in time for International Percy Jackson Day! I hope you guys enjoy, and have a good Percy Jackson Day!**

 **Once again thanks for all of your support and comments. Nothing inspires me to write than seeing people interested in the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson or the Avengers franchise...sadly.**

 **The title is from this quote: "Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies" ~W.L. George**

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 **Reviews**

 **CurlyGirlyWriter: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!**

 **Anonymous: It's a re-write. I had taken a break from the old one, and by the time I'd gone back, my writing style ha changed too much to not start from scratch, but hopefully for the better!**

 **Ever-Lethargic: Lol, thank you I've actually heard that a lot. It's strange, considering.**

 **Guest: Yeah, the reason for her temper will be explained, but it's mostly to emphasize the character development for later. :)**

 **Bogorm123: Thank you! And good to see you back!**

 **godess bubbles: Will do! As long as you all like it!**

 **Icey10: Thanks! I love that you love it!**

 **Divine Protector of Skyrim: Yes, so we'll have some of the newer and older characters coming in, along with a big surprise on how...**

 **Yukatana: SO ARE YOU!**

 **Daughter of Trickery: Thanks! I try and make them as sassy as possible for everyone's benefit, really.**

 **xSkiesOfBlue11: Hmmm, I hadn't considered that...undercover mind-controlled people...hehehe, oh the plot lines!**

* * *

 **|| Andrew**

The lab was like every nerd dream Andrew had ever had, and he'd take that thought to the grave with him before ever telling Seph that.

Andrew stood next to Dr. Banner as the other opened an application on some of the equipment while Andrew continued to gawk beside him. Gods, first meeting Dr. Stark and Dr. Banner, now this lab? Seph didn't need anymore ammo.

For a moment, he took the time to worry about what all this technology around him and Seph would cause. With their luck, a Kraken would get to them before Loki's crew, but with everything they'd been through, Kronos, Gaea, Tartarus, they'd be ready...he hoped.

"Uh, kid?" A hand swiped in front of his face and Andrew jerked back, hand flying to the knife hidden at his hip as Dr. Banner and Dr. Stark came into view. Stark raised an eyebrow, pausing in his walk towards his bulky suitcase - most likely containing the Iron Man suit. "You alright there kid? Kinda thought we were gonna have to go searching for you instead for a second there."

The demigod blushed all the way to his roots. "Uh, yeah, sorry about that," the blonde cringed, rubbing the back of his burning neck. He walked over to Dr. Banner's screen from where he'd wandered, trying to get his thoughts back in order. "So where are we at?" he asked, hoping they'd ignore his little trip to la-la-land. Gods, he hoped so.

Banner stared at him for a moment, but Stark just shrugged and continued meandering across the room. After a moment of intense blushing and worried staring from the doctor, Banner turned the screen more toward the blond.

"I've been working on this algorithm since I got here," Banner began, passing the laptop over before picking up a tablet, "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's report on the Tesseract, but it's going to take weeks to process."

"Yeah, time we don't have," Andrew murmured, clicking through the files, embarrassment forgotten. "Dammit, if we had a way to get passed their mainframe, we might be able to reroute to a Homer or even just a Beta cluster."

Banner nodded. "Then we might be able to clock it around six hundred teraflops." Andrew snorted. "Yeah, too bad we don't have the juice for it."

A loud clash had them both swiveling around. Stark stood behind them with his case propped up on the table behind them; however, inside was not the Iron Man suit like Andrew had expected, but a very high tech computer and scanner. Next to it was an extremely pleased Stark, looking like the harpy who'd got the camper.

"My fine gentlemen," he overemphasized, bowing just a bit. Andrew couldn't help but see Leo with his grease stains and wild hair, presenting his newest invention. (He'd have to make sure they never met. Gods only knew what they'd get up to.) "Let me show you why I am here." His smile only grew as they huddled closer.

Banner snorted as the system whirled beneath their fingers. "And all I brought was a toothbrush." Andrew snorted beside him and nodded in agreement.

Stark watched them on the side, a contemplating look in his eyes that didn't match the smile on his face. "You know, you guys should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's like candy land. You could bring your girl too," he added, nudging Andrew.

"Oh hell yes," Andrew said, still enthralled by the device in front of him. "You know," he continued, shrugging, "if we live long enough."

Banner chuckled but shook his head. "Ah, the optimism of youth. Thanks for the offer," he regarded Tony, "but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke Harlem."

Andrew propped his head up looking at the man. 'Broke Harlem?' he mouthed to himself, but wasn't paid any attention.

"Come on, Brucie-Bear! I promise nothing short of a stress free environment. Scouts honor." the billionaire added with a two finger salute with his other hand over his chest.

Andrew looked at the man amused. "Yeah, I have a hard time believing you were a scout considering you're doing the salute wrong." he turned back to the machine in front of him. "It's three fingers, by the way - not tw-Ow!"

Stark ignored him once again as Andrew rubbed his back of his head from the slap. "Shush, you're elders are talking," the man continued without looking at him.

"Um, child abuse," Andrew piped up as Banner just sat back and watched the two of them, program forgotten by all three. "What happened to 'there's no children in war?'" Stark inquired. "And I thought your girl was the snarky one?"

Andrew gasped theatrically. "Dr. Stark," he impute, "are you suggesting abuse of a person is okay if they reach a certain age? Why I never!"

"Oh, and her name is Percy. Only I get to call her Seph," Andrew added, grin wide on his face. Banner's laugh rung out over the sputtering response Stark attempted to give as the blonde pretended to turn back to the system in front of him.

Stark eventually gave up, playfully glaring at him and shoving him lightly in the shoulder. "Someone sure lost that hero shine fast," he groused. Andrew shrugged but didn't look at either one of them, though he could feel the blush kicking back up his neck and clouding his cheek.

"Not really," he admitted. He propped his head on his hand, but still didn't look at them, though he felt the weight of their stares. "But you guys are pretty cool. It's always been my dream to meet you brains, but now I can say I'm glad I met you guys too." He tried for casually, but he's not sure how well he did.

Banner cleared his throat, causing him to look up. There was a gentle smile on his face that Andrew couldn't help but return. "You're not too bad yourself, kid," the billionaire added clasping a hand on his back before fluttering away.

"You know, I kind of know how you feel," he soldiered on, walking around too casually to be casual. "Banner's always been my - what was it your gir-Percy! I mean, Percy said? 'Brain crush?'"

"Oh, gods," Andrew moaned, folding his face in his hands. "Let's never bring that up. Please."

"Too late!" Stark laughed. "But seriously, the brains and chill demeanor, not to mention the whole Jekyll and Hyde thing. Did I mention your brain yet? Because very very sexy, if I do say so myself."

As he spoke, he brushed by the good doctor, prodding BAnner with an electrical prod just as he swept to the other side of the man.

Banner jumped, whipping around to stare at the other man like he was a few bolts loose of a suit. Despite the growing tension from the doctor, Andrew didn't have a clue what it spawned from, but he did see the steaming super soldier headed their way.

Yeah, better to just sit this one out, he thought as he leaned against his corner of the lab, waiting for the fireworks. Though he could go for some popcorn with the show.

"Nothing? Nothing, at all?" Stark questioned, though it seemed more for Banner's benefit than his own. Banner, it seemed, didn't know whether to be mad, surprised, or indignant. He seemed to stuck on confused, though there was a hint of comfort in his perplexed stare.

The Captain had reached them before Banner could answer. "Are you nuts?" he cried. Stark paid him no mind, his focus solely on Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" he finished grinning like a kid hyped on sugar. Rogers was significantly less amused.

"Is everything a joke to you?" he demanded. The other man just shrugged in response, hopping on the desk. "Funny things, sure." His grin grew at Andrew's snort, despite the demigod trying to cover it up. Again, Rogers's and his lack of amusement.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doctor," he tagged on, addressing Bruce.

The gamma specialist held his hands up in surrender, all joking seemed to have drained out of him with the Captain's arrival. Andrew couldn't help but miss it already. "No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," he assured resigned.

"Hey, come on," Andrew nudged his shoulder, "if you blew up at every annoyance, Dr. Stark should have had you red in the face the second the second he walked in."

The man in question rolled his eyes before narrowing his eyes at the kid. "Not the color we'd have used. Are you saying you don't know what we're talking about?" he questioned.

Andrew shrugged. Between the TItan War, Giant War, and the Getting Into a Decent College War, he wasn't aware of just about anything these days. "It couldn't have been that big though I'm guessing it has something to do with your harlem comment from earlier," he nodded to Banner.

Banner and Rogers stared at him like he was the one missing some screws, but Stark just laughed, grabbing Banner around the shoulders. "See! You're tiptoeing, big man! You need to strut!"

"And you need to focus on the problem," Rogers cut in. Stark turned to him with an annoyed expression. "Who says I'm not? There are just too many question to consider though. Why did Fury call us in? Why now?" he ticked off on his fingers. "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," he shrugged.

"You think Fury is hiding something?" the Captain asked incredulously. Tony gave him a deadpan look, and Andrew thought this was better than cable.

"Captain. He's a spy. He's the . Spy! His secrets have secrets!" the man noted condescendingly. He plopped a blueberry in his mouth before thumbing in his companions' direction. "It's bugging them too."

That caught the Captain's attention. "Doctor?" he said, ignoring Andrew. That was fine with him; Andrew was enjoying the show.

"Uh, I-I just wanna finish my work here and-" the curly-haired man began to stammer, turning away from the group as a whole. Rogers's eyebrows scrunched up at his reaction. "Doctor?" he repeated.

There was a beat of silence before the Doctor turned back around. "'A warm light for all mankind,'" Banner quoted.

"Loki's jab at Fury about the cube. I heard it," the uniformed man prompted. Banner pointed to Stark with his glasses. "I think that was meant for you."

Andrew nodded, starting to catch on. "He's right," he said distractedly looking at Stark, "Even if no one told him, your disconnect was all over the news."

"Wait, Stark Towers?" Rogers asked, looking as amused as he sounded. "That big, ugly…"he trailed off at Stark and to his surprise, Andrew's warning glance. He coughed. "Building in New York? What about it?"

Bruce shrugged. "It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy. It can run itself for what, a year?" he asked the inventor.

Stark shrugged. "It's just a prototype. I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now though." Banner nodded, but Rogers didn't seem convinced. "So?"

"So why didn't they ask him for help on this Tesseract Project?" Andrew responded. "I mean, what exactly are they doing with a power source like this anyway because clean energy? Seems more like a Miss America answer than the truth."

Stark shrugged. "I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files for the hundredth time," he interjected casually. He ate another fruit before offering the bag to the room at large. "Blueberry?"

Rogers's shocked look turned into an angry snarl. "Yet you're confused why they didn't want you around?"

Stark just raised an eyebrow. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not . Awesome." He stared at the super soldier as he visibly tried to steel himself.

I think Loki's trying to wind us up." he insisted. Stark ate another berry. "This is a man who means to start a war on a global scale, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have our orders; we should follow them." He looked pointedly at the man eating.

The billionaire just threw another blueberry in his mouth, smirking slightly as Rogers's face twitched. "Following's not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you, Stark," Rogers bristled. The other tapped his chin, pretending to think. "Hmm, of the people in this room who is a) wearing a spangly outfit, and b) not of use?" he retorted.

"He's got you there," Andrew muttered, though not quietly enough if Rogers's glare and Stark's only smugger expression were anything to go by.

Banner, ever the voice of reason, intervened before another war of words could commence. "Steve," he pleaded, "tell me none of this smells the least bit funky to you."

'Steve' didn't comment, though he obviously looked turned by the man's words. "Just find the cube," he said as he walked out. Stark rolled his eyes as the doors shut, not paying any attention to Andrew snatching the remainder of his blueberries.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" he muttered bitterly, turning back to his device. "Probably should have kept him in the ice."

Andrew shrugged, bumping the eccentric genius away from the machine a bit. "Well," he began, swallowing a handful of blueberries, "he's right about Loki. Something's not right with that guy. For a guy who seems to always have the jump on everyone, he sure is sitting pretty in that cell."

Stark shook his head, not buying it. "What he's got is an acme dynamite kit. It's going to blow up in his face, and I'm going to be there when it does."

"And I'll be sure to read all about it," Banner said, jotting down information on the screen.

"Sure," Stark said, "or maybe you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Banner just shook his head, suddenly finding the need to clean his specs.

"No, you see, I don't have a suit of armor. I'm exposed," he said, looking back at them, "like a nerve . It's a nightmare."

Andrew looked at him sympathetically though curiously all the same as Stark spoke his piece. It was times like this that Andrew wished he wasn't a demigod - that and running away from monsters, and the annoying gods, and a large part of it actually. There always seemed to be something major he missed or just didn't know about. Like life just passed him over and forgot to give him an update.

"What about you, kid?" Stark nudged. Andrew snapped his head towards him, tilting it in lieu of asking him to repeat. "You gonna bust out any super secret powers?" Andrew shrugged, a smile spreading over his lips.

"Something like that."

xXxXx

 **|| Seph**

There were probably a million and one things it took to be a super spy; fighting ability apparently wasn't one of them.

In the past hour, Seph had had the unbelievable opportunity to spar — more like cat fight — with the legendary Black Widow, and if there was one thing Seph was learning about the assassin, it was that her prowess at fighting was significantly overhyped. The longer they fought, the more Seph got the impression, the redhead worked more on stealth and firearms than actual hand to hand combat.

No doubt she was good, Seph thought as she evaded another swipe, but she expected more than good . Honestly, she'd expected to be knocked on her ass by now.

It also didn't help that within a few minutes into their 'spar' (read: battle of the bitchiest), the spy seemed to have come to the same conclusion. Something told her that redhead wasn't too happy being more or less — less, ever so much less — on par with a seventeen-year old girl from Manhattan with an attitude problem.

Quite frankly, the demigod didn't know what had distracted the other's previous opponents more — the spy's boobs or mediocre fighting skills.

Said chest flashed across Seph's point of view as the Widow attempted to jump on top of the girl. Seph rolled away, swiping a foot at the other's back. The spy jumped back and turned to face the crouched girl, perspiration starting to gather on her forehead.

Seph stood up, not even two feet away and not much better. While the Widow's fighting was on subpar, her endurance was something to be yearned for.

"You're pretty good," the redhead said as the two began to circle each other. Seph shrugged without looking away from her. "You're not too bad yourself," the raven replied.

For a moment, the two women paused just opposite of each other, even their breaths seemed suspended. In the next second, the two had moved across the room, bodies slanted towards each other's throats.

Like Seph expected, the Widow slashed high, jumping as if to pin her by the air dispersion alone. The demigod slid under her and spun to tackle Romanoff, dropping any form of proper fighting that they previously had.

Arms constraining one of her on her waist, Romanoff began to buck and thrash to shake her off. The spy used her free arm to elbow Seph between the shoulders, on the arms, on her head, anywhere she could reach, but Seph did not budge, only held on tighter.

Maneuvering out of the Widow's reach, Seph stood with the other woman in her arms, arms around her back like a strange hug. Gathering some strength, Seph lifted the woman up in her and fell backwards. At the last second, she twisted so it was her landing on the Widow, shifting their arms so the Widow's are shoved up almost to her neck.

The air was still beside Romanoff's occasional struggle and the heaviness of their panting breaths.

A sharp clap knocked the moment aside, and Seph almost stumbles to get off the spy. At the door, the pirate in bondage gear stood sarcastically, leaning against the doorframe — which the demigod wasn't even aware someone could do.

Romanoff's face was pinched for a moment as she stood before smoothing out into something vicious. "Sir," she declared. For a moment, Seph feared she'd salute the man, but she held her tongue (for once in her life) as the man walked further into the room.

"Sir?" Romanoff asked when the man didn't move to speak. His eyes were locked on the Seph. There was a tense moment of silence where the only sound being the weight of Fury's gaze on her face. Seph wasn't aware a person could stare loudly, and she wasn't too happy about finding out.

For a moment Seph envisioned herself in chains, being dragged into the bowels of this sci-fi craft.

"Sir," Romanoff repeated more firmly, breaking Seph out of the reverie, pirate themed insults still ringing in her ear. "I'm sorry," Seph snapped, "Did you happen to lose something? On my face, perh-?"

"What are you willing to do?" Fury interjected.

Seph started at the question. "What?" But he was back to being Spy Guy #1, turning to face his agent for the first time since entering. He didn't seem to notice the smoke basically coming off her. "I want you to interrogate Loki. Find out anything you can, and anything you can't. Take the girl with you," he added as the spy began to nod.

Seph didn't know reacted more violently, Romanoff or her.

"Sir, I don't think-"

" Woah , just hold on a-"

Spy and demigod stopped to glare at each other for a moment before turning back to the man in the black bondage gear, but he had already began to walk away.

Um. No.

" Excuse you," Seph said running up to the man. She grabbed his shoulder and whipped him around, glaring at him with an intensity she usually used facing down monsters and gorgons. Before she could speak, Romanoff's voice beat her to it.

"Sir, she's not equipped," the redhead said, appearing at her shoulder. "She'd be nothing but a liability, and honestly, we don't have time to get her ready. We already let her and her boy-toy play dress up agent, and let her little friend play little scientist, but this is going too far," she completed with a blank face glare at the demigod's face.

Seph happily returned it. She knew what game they were playing, but damnit if they didn't play it well - though Seph wasn't sure there was too much acting on the Widow's part.

Turning back to Fury, Seph placed her hand on her hips, meeting his eyes. "I'll do it. I wasn't lying when I said I'd rain hell, but," she continued at the smug look on his face - Seriously, super spy, her ass! She could read the satisfaction on his face like a Greek text. "But," she repeated, taking a step closer to the man, "I did not sign up to be in your boy band. I'll play in a feature, but don't expect an encore."

Fury nodded once with a smirk still firmly planted on his face before turning around once again and finally leaving the room with a swish of his coat.

Seph looked at the Spider at her side while the redhead stared back at her dispassionately.

Seph cleared her throat and motioned for the other to lead. "Shall we?" she prompted. The woman said nothing before sweeping out of the room, not unlike her boss a moment earlier, though decidingly less dramatic without the flapping trench coat.

Oh, yeah this would be fun.

As they moved from the training rooms towards a deeper part of the carrier, predictably where the cages preside, Seph watched as the woman in front of her transformed more and more into the legendary cut-throat spy that she'd never heard of.

While her face had always been blank, the few emotions that she had seen before hand - n frustration, determination...worry - disappeared like evaporated water, but there was somethign more there.

Despite the added layers and the cold facade, Seph could almost see every emotion she wasn't showing, and if she hadn't seen her put it on, she might have fallen for the mask too.

As they entered Loki's cage, the god stopped pacing, snapping his neck towards them, despite them lingering in the shadows of the room. "There's not many people that can sneak up on me." he remarked, turning to face them fully as Romanoff stepped out.

"But you figured I'd come," she stated. Loki just smiled. "And you're not alone either." Seph didn't bother commenting, just moving to stand next to the woman.

"My, my," Loki began, his voice filled with laughter. "AFter whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate. How quaint," he chuckled before turning to the demigod. "And you what purpose do you serve?"

"I want to know what you've done with Agent Barton," Romanoff interjected cooly, ignoring his line of questioning entirely.

Loki smiled sweetly, though it wasn't a nice smile. "I would say I've expanded his mind."

"And after?" Romanoff continued. "After all is said and done, and you're King of the Mountain, what happens to his mind then?"

"Loki peered at her, amused. "Oh, is that love I detect, Agent Romanoff? Or can I call you Natasha?" Loki teased. If an all-powerful supervillain hellbent on taking over the world with an army of aliens could tease.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt," Romano-Natasha said, completely monotone. Loki studied her before taking a seat on the bed like it was a throne. "Tell me," he ordered.

Romanoff shifted, emotions brimming at the edge as she pulled a chair over, though whether they were genuine or not was still up for debate. Seph stayed stationary in the corner, watching the two players carefully.

"Before I worked for SHIELD," she opened, "I, well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set, and I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar and in a bad way. Barton was sent to kill me, but," her lip quirked up in the barest hint of a smile, "he made another call."

"And waht ill you do if I vow to spare him?" Loki pondered, leaning forward. Romanoff's head lurched back to his, and her stare hardened. "Not let you out, that's for sure."

Loki didn't seem to mind. "No, no, but I like this," he said, all too riled up. "Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man," the god laughed.

"Regimes fall everyday," the redhead reasoned. "I tend not to weep over it. I'm Russian. Well," she paused, thoughtfully without much thought, "I was."

"And what is it you want?" Loki asked almost sincerely.

The spy stood from the chair, inching closer to the cage. "It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger; I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you though?" Loki persisted, drawing her attention. "Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter? São Paulo? The hospital fire?"

Seph watched as the spy straightened notably as the trickster continued to speak, her expression remaining the same but tense. "Barton told me everything," Loki divulged. "Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red! And you think saving a single man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? That is basest sentimentality, a child's prayer!" Loki spat.

"You're pathetic," he raged. His voice becoming more venomous as he continued. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are apart of you, and they will never go away!" he screeched a he slammed his fist against the divider.

Gone was the cool, sarcastic charisma he'd been sporting earlier. Instead, there was nothing but a fuming monster.

"I won't touch Barton," he whispered to a paling Romanoff. "Not until I make him kill you. Slowly . Intimately . In every way he know you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" the thing on the other end raged.

Romanoff took a step back, her expression cloud in disgust. "You're a monster," she hissed, but Loki only laughed. "Oh no, you brought the monster."

And then, everything shifted. Gone was the fearful, cowering Natasha, and Black Widow was left in her place. It was enough to give Seph whiplash. Loki seemed to agree.

"So Banner...that's you play?" Loki staggered back, confused, and honestly, Seph felt for the guy. "What?" he demanded, looking around like waiting for someone to pop out screaming ' PUNK'D!'

But Romanoff wasn't done talking. She turned, hand on her earpiece, already moving. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well," she narrated.

She turned to Loki just as she reached the door and nodded, "Thank you for your cooperation," and then she swept out of the room, just as dramatic as last time.

Seph moved to follow, catchin Loki's eyes at the bridge to the cage. For a moment, he just looked confused while his eyes flickered from bright blue to emerald green, then back to blue again. He smirked at her, just a little, as she ran after the spy.

"Hold up!" she called, but Romanoff ignored her. Seph growled and raced to grab her arm, making her face her. The spy glared at the demigod, but Seph didn't budge.

"You think Banner is the problem? What's he going to do, nerd the world to death?" she demanded. Romanoff gestured in the direction of Loki's cell. "You heard him! He plans to unleash the Hulk!"

"And what?! You wanna run after the Doc because a nut job already known for trying to manipulate everyone?

Romanoff straightened, her glare becoming more pronounced. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. It's the best way."

"No," Seph snapped. "It's just the only way you're willing to try."

Romanoff shook her head. Bringing her hand to her earpiece, she spoke. "This is Black Widow. I'm going to need help detaining one Persephone Jackson." At Seph's shocked look, the spy smirked before taking off down the hallway.

Snapping out of her daze, Seph growled and took after her. Romanoff turned and fired off her gun. Dodging the literal bullets, Seph spun on her heel and tackled the other woman.

Rolling with it, Romanoff landed on her back. She lifted the demigod in the air, balanced on her feet before throwing her off her. Not waiting another second, the spy shot off once again. Seph flowed into a roll as she landed before propping herself on one knee.

Seeing how far ahead the other was, she drew one of the daggers she'd picked up from the training rooms and threw it. Just as the woman was about to turn down another hallway, it imbedded itself in front of her face. Without breaking momentum, Romanoff slid under it.

Seph was already chasing after her. "I don't think so," she cried, moving to punch the older woman but Romanoff dodged. Grabbing her arm, Widow swung hur into the wall. "Let me do my job!" the woman yelled.

Seph threw her head back, crashing it against the other's skull. The demigod pushed herself back before using the redhead as leverage to run up the wall and flipping behind her, switching their places. "Well, do it better!" Seph replied, pushing her farther into the wall.

Romanoff elbowed her in the face, and they were locked in hand to hand combat, pushing each other up and down the hallway. SHIELD officers suddenly spilled from both sides of the hallway, restricting them, the closest ones reaching to retrain Seph from continuing. Seph turned to punch one of the guards that grabbed at her. Seeing her opponent distracted, Romanoff used the walls to jump over the guards' heads before taking off.

Before Seph could follow, she was boxed in, too busy trying to escape the enclosing guards. With Widow out of the way, the guards reached for their guns, and suddenly, Seph couldn't face anywhere without seeing a barrel.

"Godsdammit!" she cursed under her breath as she raised her arms in surrender and slowly sank to her knees. No point in fighting a losing battle with a war on the horizon.

She was handcuffed behind her back and hauled to her feet before being led down the opposite hallway from Widow and subsequently the rest of the group and back towards the cells.

* * *

 **I'm sure you noticed that Andrew doesn't seem up to date with some important events while Seph does. That does get explained within the next chapter.**

 **The whole Percy and Seph thing will also be explained, though I'm debating whether to make a new series of oneshots for this world entirely. Stay tuned!**

 **Also don't hate Widow or anyone else just yet, there's a reason for the amnesty that also gets explained, but probably not in the way people are expecting, or maybe just that. It's a pretty mundane reason.**

 **And that's all, folks! I hope you all liked it! There will be some major cannon divergence in the next chapter when everything comes to a head. However, I'm always open to suggestions or opinions on anything you guys thought about it. Don't be afraid to tell me!**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review!**

 **~SM**


	5. Chapter V - Things Go Wrong

**Hey, guys! Sorry for the long wait. Things have been kind of hectic, starting college, moving states, and just finding times to write. But I'm back in the game and I'm not planning on leaving any time soon.**

 **For this chapter, I'm not gonna be able to reply to the comments this time, but I'll try to add them into the next chapter. Thank you guys for all the support. I wasn't sure if anyone was still reading this, but you guys seem to be and that means a lot.**

 **The title is from the quote "There are too many things going wrong for us to win this game" ~Bobby Gonzalez**

 **Disclaimer: As much as I wish...Percy Jackson and Avengers Franchises...yet**

* * *

 **|| Andrew ||**

The best thing about the helicarrier, Andrew decided, was that there was no need for cable, which was good considering demigods aversion to technology. For the second time that day, Andrew was treated to a person storming into the lab like they were in the middle of a daytime soap opera instead of an impending alien invasion. With that being said, as entertaining as all this stomping and galavanting that everyone was doing was, with as big (and supposedly powerful) as these people were, it couldn't be good for keeping them in the air.

Both the demigod and Banner looked up from their conversation as Fury marched in, looking his namesake. Dr. Stark didn't even blink.

Angrily, the man stopped in front of the billionaire, visibly restraining himself. "What are you doing, Stark," he managed to gritted out through clenched teeth. And yes, that was definitely a statement, not a question.

The man in question just tilted his head before throwing a blueberry into his mouth, smirking as Fury became more agitated. "Uh, kind of been wondering the same about you there, S&M."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury bit out, glaring at the billionaire.

"And we are. The model's locked and sweeping for the signature right now," Banner interjected as if to distract the director from reaching for Stark's neck. If the man's twitching of his hands were anything to go by, it might not have been a bad plan.

"After that we should know within the hour," Andrew assured, taking over, pointing to one of the various screens behind him. "We'll know the location anywhere within about a half a mile minimum."

"AND! You'll get your cube back," Stark said. He threw another berry up in the air before waving dismissively at the only slightly seething director. "No muss, no fuss." The monitor beside the billionaire beeped and the holograms flared red. He raised his eyebrow before turning to face Fury. "So what _is_ 'Phase Two'?"

A metal clang sounded through the room as a fuming Rogers dropped what resembled a prop from an under-budget sci-fi film onto the table. "Phase Two is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," he spat out. "Sorry," the Captain said, turning to Tony, "the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Look Steve," Fury started, donning a put-upon expression,"we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This doesn't mean tha-"

"I'm sorry, Nicky!" Tony interrupted peppily. He turned the monitor to show the blueprints for a range of different weapons, all under the Phase Two category. His innocent expression didn't seem to match the bright **CLASSIFIED** insignia that was visible in the background "what were you lying?"

Rogers shook his head. "I was wrong, Diretor. The world hasn't changed a bit." There was a look of disappointment on his face like a disapproving friend but also a bit lost and untrusting.

Seriously, two words: soap opera.

The doors to the lab slide open again to reveal Romanoff and Thor. Banner gestured to the screen as they entered the arena. "Did you know about this?" Banner demanded softly from her. She ignored him and stepped closer.

"You mind removing yourself from the area, doctor?"

Banner audiably guffawed. "I was in Calcutta; I was pretty well removed," he groused.

"Loki's manipulating you," she insisted, but he just scoffed. "Yeah?" he dismissed,"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you and said please." Andrew's eyebrows shot up to his hairline; he was surprised she even knew the word. From his - limited and quite frankly imaginative - experience - spies relied on their retrieval skills and manipulation; please wasn't usually in their vocabulary.

"And I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy," Banner snapped. He grabbed a screen and angled it so everyone could see it, a Phase Two missile blueprint displayed clearly on it. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.

There was a second - just one - of silence where no one spoke, just looking at each other, accusingly, trying to gauge each other's fault in the matter. ' _A team_ ,' Andrew thought in quiet disbelief, ' _no, they're their own greatest enemies_.'

Some of the world's greatest minds, and skill sets, but unable to be in the same room long enough to cohesively _work_ together, even to save the world. This could be a problem. No this would be.

"Because of him," Fury claimed bitterly, pointing to Thor, who looked shocked for a moment. Andrew tried to discreetly move away from the so called god. He'd rather be a spectator in this drama, thankyouverymuch.

"Me?" The Thunderer…well, thundered.

Fury glared at him in response. "Last year," he began, turning to face everyone as he spoke, "Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned no _only_ are we not along, but we are hopelessly and hilariously outgunned."

Thor shook his head as they glanced at him. "My people want nothing with peace with your planet."

"Bu you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury demanded, then he turned to Andrew. "Not even the only ones on Earth," he added, looking hi straight in the eyes.

He didn't dare dignify that with more than a raise of an eyebrow. Fury better tread carefully.

"The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled," he continued, turning away. "Like you controlled the cube?" someone said, but Andrew was starting to tuned out.

This was getting dangerous on a whole new scale. Flashes of what SHIELD's investigation into demigods could mean for them blazed and streaked across his eyelids, and none of them good. An impending apocalypse, they could handle. It seemed like every time they turned around something was happening, but this? A shady government agency looking to do what exactly? What did they even know?

"You forced our hand," Fury's voiced floated back in his ear. "We had to come up with somethin-" Andrew snorted.

"Oh yes, we made you build weapons of mass destruction, indirectly inviting an alien invasion to our doorstep, fiends!" he cried, dramatically clutching his heart. Seph and Leo would have been proud. In fact, the Stolls too.

"You speak like you're not human," Steve ventured cautiously. "That's because he's not, not fully," Fury spat.

Banner's quiet "What?" could be heard only barely under Fury's sardonic chuckles. "Oh," he sneered,"didn't your lab partner tell you? We're not alone, even on Earth. There are more creatures and variations of humans crawling around than there are humans," he said, gesturing to the son of Athena.

The blonde just took a step closer to him, hands clenched at his side. "I'd watch where you step," he said cooly, " you don't know whose toes you might be stepping on. Trust me, you don't know anything about anything, nor are you likely ever to learn so you're just gonna have to put your big boy pants on and accept that."

Fury squared his shoulders and met his gaze headon. "Maybe, but that's exactly why we needed this project."

Stark puffed out what was probably once a laugh before this whole thing. "Right, a nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again, how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury asked wryly, stepping out to face the billionaire.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Rogers began staring Stark down before shifting his gaze to Fury.

"Wait, how is this about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Me too, buddy.

"Excuse me," Fury began defensively.

"Captain America's on threat watch?"

"Are you above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to God, Stark, one more wisecrack."

"Threatening! I feel threatened"

The noise level increased as the fighting picked up, the Stark-Rogers Exchange being the loudest. Andrew backed himself into the corner, trying to look for a way to shut them up or even just a way out. If they couldn't find a way to work together, he needed to get to people that would actually stand a chance. This wasn't the time for petty squabbles.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a blue pulse. His eyes widened. "Guys," he tried.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor was saying.

"It's his M.O., though, isn't it?" Banner considered. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, we're-we're a chemical mixture. A ticking time bomb."

Fury took a step forward. "You need to step away."

"Oh, come on," Tony said, wrapping an arm around Rogers's shoulder, "Why shouldn't they guy let off some steam?"

"You know damn well why!" The Captain yelled, throwing the arm off, "Back off!"

Stark took a step up to him, coming face to face with the Man with the Plan (Considering the tension and distance or lack of therefore, Andrew could have imagined a different meeting with different men but that was neither here or them).

"I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony seethed. Rogers only stepped closer. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Stark rattled off, counting it them off his fingers.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage." Rogers bit out. "The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think the word you were looking for is ' _knew'_ and I'm glad you know us enough to play judge even when not in touch with the standards of our time and culture,"Andrew imparted, crossing his arms.

Tony didn't even blink. "I think I would just cut the wire." he said.

Steve laughed quietly, finding absolutely nothing funny."Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero." That did it.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony demanded. "You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle," he spat.

Steve stepped closer to the man. "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed. "You people are so petty...and tiny." Bruce nodded. "Yeah, this is a tee-"

"Guys,this is going to far. We need to focus. The scep-" He was ignored.

"I don't want to hear anything from you!" Fury yelled at Andrew.

"WELL, TOO DAMN BAD!" The Athenian roared. "I didn't ask to be here! I didn't want to get dragged into this shit-fest; you are the one who pulled us in and didn't listen when we said no so don't get pissy when we call you out on your shit because that's on you and so is all of this shit too. Don't get mad when people tell you, you fucked up because _you. Fucked. Up_!"

No one spoke before… "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"

"Where?" Banner demanded bitterly, "You rented by room."

"The cell was just in case..."Fury backtracked. Banner beat him to it."In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!"

The room seemed to stop.

Everyone turned toward the doctor. He sighed.

"I got low. I didn't see an end," Bruce said darkly,"so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping people. I was good,"His face suddenly contorted in anger."until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!"

He turned to Natasha, anger coming off him in waves. "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" He sneered.

Both Fury and Natasha moved their hands to their guns. Even Stark looked a worried

"Doctor Banner," Rogers said gently. He hesitated before continuing, taking a step forward. "Put the scepter down." Banner looked down in shock as if he hadn't known when it had come into his hands, and honestly, neither did Andrew.

From the corner, the computer running the tracking system beeped, drawing everyone's attention. "Got it," Tony said, rushing over, but hell, if Andrew didn't get there first.

Banner put down the scepter and joined them. "Sorry, kids," he said, over his shoulder, already refocusing, "You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

Andrew chuckled before typing something into the computer. "Too bad; I'm sure it would have been one hell of a trick." He kind of expected the swat so it didn't really hurt that much.

"You were able to locate the Tesseract?" Thor asked, coming closer to the huddled group.

Tony nodded standing up, "I can get there faster," he started, but Steve held his hand up. "No, no. Look, all of us, should-"

"No," Thor interrupted, "The tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it."

Andrew tuned them out as he processed the data on the screen. Really, they weren't that far from it, but what was more concerning was...

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

"Bruce,"Andrew whispered, staring at the screen. "Is that..." But Baner wasn't looking at the screen anymore.

Banner took off his glasses, gaping at the window above the monitor. "Oh my God"

Andrew peered to see what had caught his gaze before whippipping around to the room at large, "Get dow-!"

An explosion went off right in front of the lab window, and the world erupted into flashes of light and thunder so loud that it made Zeus jealous before the floor fell out from under Andrew's feet.

"Put on the suit!"

oOoOoOo

Andrew coughed and shook his head, trying to blink the dust out of his eyes.. The room itself was dim and dark with a dust cloud from the debris that was gathered around his body.

"I'm okay," he could hear Romanov shifting near him as the world came into view. "We're okay, right?" She sounded nervous.

As he sat up, he could see Banner, skin tinting green while he writhed and bucked. Suddenly, he was starting to understand the 'something more' there was to the doctor. And it didn't seem like Romanov was helping.

"Widow," Andrew coughed out. She wiped her head over to him as he pushed himself to one knee. "Chase," she whispered as he began to slink over. As he came closer, he could see her kicking something, either a pipe or fallen sheet of metal. Andrew quickly fell to his knees and pushing at the metal trapping her leg.

She scrambled to her feet almost immediately with only a slight limp, then turned to face Banner before he could stop her. "Doctor?" she started, inching closer as the man continued to struggle with himself. "Bruce? Bruce, you got to fight it. This is just what Loki wants!" she said with conviction, ignoring Andrew as he hissed her name.

Usually, he'd just say 'your funeral' and leave it, but he had the distinct feeling that it'd be his too if she didn't stop.

"Please,"he whispered, "I don't think this is the bes-"

She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "We're gonna be okay, right?," she cut him off. She furiously waved two approaching SHIELD agents away and honestly, Andrew wouldn't mind a little help getting out of this. The least they could do is take her with them or the Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde situation happening in the corner.

"Okay?" she continued. "I swear on my life, Bru-"

"Your life?!" Banner roared, his face transforming and his voice resonating through the hull. His skin turned to a Grinch green and his shirt began to rip.

"Dr. Banner," Andrew tried. The doctor's eyes caught his, and Andrew could see BAnner staring back before the change took over completely.

There was another echoing roar as Banner smashed the machinery next to him a she stood before turning towards the only other people in there.

Them.

"Run!" Andrew yelled already taking off. Romanov rolled under a turbine, beginning to make her way through the maze of pipes while from the behind her, the Not-So Gentle Green Giant pulled them out from above her on the catwalk.

Andrew turned back and jumped up, using one of the pipes above to swing himself onto the giant's back, grunting. He could see Romanov scrambled onto the catwalk.

Lurching forward, Andrew grabbed another one of the hanging wires and climbing up into the over head. Green Bean reached for him, growling like a dog at a squirrel, unnecessary and only amusing in certain situations. By the time, the giant hand had breached the overhead pipes, Andrew was already leveraging himself to the next level.

Andrew ran on the hanging catwalk as he heard (and felt with the shaking of the hull) Romanov make her way below him with Banner not too far behind.

He saw a gap in the walkway ahead of him and grabbed a heavy metal sheet before jumped through just in time to swing it right on the head of the beast out Banner.

There was a loud _clang_ and a painful landing.

Andrew stood above the beast, panting as Romanov walked up toward him, breathing heavily as she stared at the downed doctor.

"Go," she said calmly, chest still heaving. "I'll watch him, but they're gonna need your help with the turbines. Stark can do the outside, but Rogers won't have a clue how to help. Get to them. I can manage here. Go up one level and towards the lab; they should be at the turbine closest there."

Andrew nodded before jumping up and grabbing the edge of the catwalk he had jumped off before jumping again and shimming himself into another overhead walkway. He finally pulled himself out of the newly made skylight (groundlight? _floor_ light?) and onto the ground floor, taking off towards the failing engines and probably squabbling teammates.

Following Widow's directions, he turned the corner near the edge of the lab and could tell he had reached his destination. At the end of the corridor stood an armed gunman shooting at what appeared to be empty air and an open panel. Taking a running start, Andrew kicked off the wall, landing a punch through the screen of the man's riot gear helmet before the man could turn his gun on him.

He grabbed the gun off the man's unconscious form and moved out into the small alcove where a part of the hellicarrier had been torn out. With the silenced gun, he could hear Rogers shouting from…below?

He peered over the edge and saw Rogers climbing up a hanging cable. "You okay," he shouted down, cupping his hands. Rogers nodded, though shaking his head everytime Andrew reached for the cable to help, gesturing towards his head with one of his hands, trying to tell him something. Whatever he said was lost over the wind.

It wasn't until Andrew heard the faint scratch of static from behind that he started to get it. An earwig about the size of his fingernail laid on the floor near the open panel yelling for Rogers.

Andrew hurried to pick it up."Stark," he almosted boomed over the com, "this is Chase. I can see the relays are intact and that everything seems to be a go. What do you need?"

"Oh thank god, someone who knows their stuff," Stark sighed - almost cried - over the frequency. "I'm in Engine Three. I've got it up to speed but you need to pull the stator control unit to reverse the polarity long enough for me to get out! Preferably now!"

With that, he slammed the lever down as Rogers made his way onto the platform. Andrew, himself, grabbed the cable that he had been hanging on as the Iron Man suit hurdled towards them, lassoing one of the arms and curving Stark's path into the hallway instead of the wall.

Stark slowed to a stop and the cable went slack. Both Rogers and Andrew were panting as the entered the corridor again, the demigod falling to his knees (seriously, Rogers wasn't even panting that hard) as Stark lifted his facemask.

There seemed to be a million things going wrong at the moment - and those were only the things he knew about.

The Hulk was still raging somewhere with Romanov probably still running for her life.

There was no guaranteed protection for the scepter, if it was even still in their possession.

Another bomb had gone off and gods knew what Thor was up to, but despite all of that, despite the sounds of Stark and Rogers calling for his name (in different voices and pitches in Stark's case), only one thought was running threw his mind as he started to catch his breath.

"Where's Seph?"

* * *

 **Okay, guys! This is where everything changes. Next chapter should be up...soonish? I've already started but editing takes longer with all of the chaos going on in my life now. This chapter was a bit shorter than the last, but that was mostly due to where I wanted to end it. However, not only will we be seeing some major cannon divergence, but some new demigods might be showing up... now, that's all folks!**

 **Thanks for reading and please review!**

 **~SM**


	6. Chapter VI - Things Get Worse

**Hey guys! Sorry for taking so long. College is really picking up so it makes it a bit hard to find time. However, none of that! Here is the next chapter. Sadly, this time the title isn't from any great quote, but it's there none the less.**

 **Disclaimer: Sadly, Marvel and Rick Riordan still hold** **ownership over Percy Jackson and the Avengers.**

* * *

 **|| Seph**

Next time there was an intergalactic crisis, Seph was gonna sit on the sidelines and watch the world burn if this was where it got her.

Granted, this was her first one, but she can't help but feel that everytime she got involved in something like this - whether against her will or not! - she always landed in a tight spot, where she was the bad guy.

First it was the lightning bolt.

Then it was being a daughter of Neptune in a Roman camp (even with a goddess's introduction).

Tartarus. 'Nuff said.

Now she was sitting pretty in a barred cell next to an _actual_ intergalactic crisis and wondering just where she went wrong with her life.

(Probably somewhere around birth. Really, her life was a just a series of unfortunate events.)

Groaning, she pushed off the wall of her cell and turned to the guard, standing at attention near the door of the room. "Hey" she tried from the back of the cells, waving at him. He didn't so much as glance at her.

Frustrated, she sat on the metal bed attached to the wall, as if from a cliched prison movie with the chain extensions and all. She sighed and gripped her hair before leaning back shivering, wishing she had worn her jacket newly acquired SHIELD jacket with her. (Even if it was Andy's. What was Andy's was hers even if vice versa didn't exactly pan out).

More importantly she wished she had riptide with her. They had changed her out of her previous outfit and into a plain t-shirt with sweats with no pockets, along with confiscating all of her weapons. Even going as far as to search her hair, which was a bit extra in her opinion...even if they had found a lockpick set in there, but still! (Live with the Stolls and Leo long enough and you learn to be on guard, plus it's a handy skill.)

Granted, she was sure they were more worried about the knives that Thalia and Reyna had taught her to hide on her person but it was effective nonetheless. No Riptide.

All of a sudden, the ship jerked to the side, toppling her into one of the side chains. _Fuck_ , she thought pushing herself to sit upright. She looked to where the guard, only to find him leaning against the door post, blood trailing from his forehead, barely conscious, with blood on the wall where he must have hit his head.

She cursed and pushed herself up but paused. The man's water had fallen over with him and was seeping through the grated floor. She smiled as a plan formed in her head and thrust her hand ou.

However, before she could feel that familiar pull in her gut, a laugh sounded through the holding place and a loud smack. Loki stood tall, a maniac grin spread across his face as another man in a guard uniform stepped over the prone form of the previous guard, a daze look on his face as he moved to let the mischief maker out of his cage.

' _Well, fuck_ ,' Seph thought again as she quickly reached out for the man's water, feeling a considerable less amount than before.

Just as the Loki stepped out, a loud "No!" was heard as Thor came hurtling through the door. Loki crouched down just in the sliding door only for Thor to phase right through him and into the newly shut cage, appearing in front of the consol.

' _Wait, if he could have done that…'_ Seph almost facepalmed, realizing, still straining as she waited for the right time. ' _I knew he was playing us._ '

She froze when Loki caught her gaze before he returned it to his baffled brother, head tilted condescendingly. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" he asked as if honestly curious.

In response, Thor smashed his hammer against the bartier, only causing one of the supports to detach. Loki jumped back with gleeful surprise on his face. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he laughed, gliding to the control board that Fury had been by earlier.

"The humans think us immortal," he quipped. "Should we test that?"

' _So not gods, just long-lived aliens,'_ Seph thought before jumping as guard that had helped Loki actually choked and dropped dead, a bland man in a bland suit standing over him with a weapon that looked like it had been stolen off a Star Wars set.

"Move away, please," he said, politely, like he wasn't standing over another man's body. From what she could see through the sweat beading down her forehead, he had one of those long corded comms that you associated with the president's secret security, the type of people trained to be so purposely boring even so conspicuously dressed.

Loki took cautious steps toward away from the panel as the man moved forward, hand out in what was apparently an intergalactic sign of peace. From this angle, Seph could see a strange look flickering across Loki's face, not just caution but...hesitance? No, that wasn't it, but before she could decipher any further, it was gone

The man kept talking, moving confidently."We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does," he remarked, shrugging as he powered up the gun, orange rings circling the barrel of it. "Do you wanna find out?" he asked before gasping as Loki's illusion disappeared the alien already appearing behind him,scepter already being driven through his stomach, Thor's scream's of protest ringing through the room.

And colliding with a thin wall of ice.

But it wasn't enough.

The man with the gun stumbled back against the wall, blood still staining his shirt as the ice recede down the grated floor.

Seph lowered her head as she listened to the deep breathing of both Thor and the man echo in the holding chamber, still gripping her power. This wasn't over yet, she assured herself, as the _clink clink clink_ of Loki's footsteps resounded through the room, making her wonder out of all of them which was louder because all she could hear was the waves crashing in her head, but she breathed. Things may have been dire, but they didn't need another Mount St. Helen. This wasn't over yet.

She heard the doors underneath Loki's now Thor's cage opened but didn't look up, not even when hearing the pained "Goodbye, brother," almost lost to the wind.

She did turn her head when the man in black spoke. "You're gonna lose."

Loki snorted, "Am I?" he asked turning back to him, turning away from her. The man on the floor didn't pant or even breathe heavily. "It's in your nature," he stated.

"Your heroes are scattered and caged."

Drip.

"Your floating fortress falls from the sky."

Drip.

"Where is my disadvantage?"

Drip.

"You lack conviction," he spat out, blood lining his teeth.

Loki's lip curled as he opened his mouth to speak only to be cut off by a blast from the forgotten gun in his lap, throwing him across the room over the where the cage previously was through the walls of the hellicarrier. "So that's what it does," he grunted, hand on his gut.

There was a _shlink_ in air as the thin slices of ice cut through the bars enough for Seph to get out. She huffed out a laugh as she fell beside him, making the water form into a thin blade in her hand. "I guess it does," she said softly, checking over him. Looking at him, the daughter of Poseidon let out a sigh of relief.

While the scepter had still injured him pretty badly, the ice had prevented it from going to deep, barely even entering but bleeding badly nonetheless and probably hurt worse. "I have no idea who you are," she said, as she helped him stand, "but that was pretty badass."

Mr. Agent Man choked out a laugh, coughing a little at the end. "Thanks," he rasped out, pressing his back against the wall. She nodded before pulling away moving towards the shifting pile of debris when a coughed 'Wait' reached her ears.

The propped man was pushing off against the wall as if to stand, already whipping the blood away from his mouth, though his hand was still on his side. "H-h-how did you do that?"

Seph regarded him with one eye before turning to the new door Loki had made on his way out. "Look," she said, not unkindly, "not that I wouldn't love to sit down and gossip over blue tea and cookies with you spy types, but there's kind of a power hungry alien obsessed with world domination on our tail with glowing scepter of doom and mean mind to match so if we could table this," she ended, nodding her head towards the breach, "that would be great."

"Right," Mr. Man in Black muttered as stood up a bit more (but still a bit balanced more on the wall).

As if that had been the magic word, the debris pinning the raven exploded, revealing a not so happy power hungry alien obsessed with world domination, scepter of doom in hand, looking read to put that mean mind to use.

She sighed as Boring By Design gave her space, putting the arm that was around her around his stomach as she faced the other.

"You're going to regret that," he growled at Every Agent, twirling his staff as he advanced, completely ignoring her despite being in between them.

Okay, it was a little insulting being considered less of a threat than the guy currently hobbling against the wall but better to be underestimated.

She gave her sword an experimental whirl before shifting into an offensive stance. It had the desired effect.

Loki's eyes immediately tracked her movement, eyes glinting darkly. He smirked at her glare, both of them taking a step closer.

"Ah, the mysterious female warrior. Why, I don't think we've been properly introduced. Loki of Asgard," he leered, stepping closer.

"Oh I'm sorry," she said faux sweetly, putting a hand over her heart and fluttering her eyes, "I was told not to make friends with crazy fruit loops out to destroy my planet. You know how it is. Stranger danger~"

"Oh yes," he laughed brutishly, throwing his head back before rearing forward with a sneer, crouching into a stance, "you'll do nicely under my reign. I can't wait to temper you." Seph only shrugged, following his movements.

"You're more than welcome to try."

With that, it was as if a switch had gone off in both of them.

In an instant both had shot off towards each other, Loki firing energy blast with his scepter at her as she ducked an weaved around the edge, each shot coming closer and closer. Loki huffed out a laugh as another shot she baseball-slid to avoid a shot, the heat just barely passing her nose. "Oh, come on, lady warrior, where is that righteous fight that was present in Germany!" he called, firing another shot before letting out another more startled shout.

Spinning off one of the walls, she threw her blade towards him, reforming several smaller shards, forcing him backwards.

Smirking, she vaulted onto the railing along the rift, running as far inward as she could before diving down into the hole. "Oops!" she called back as she flung herself forward.

She quickly caught herself on to one of the rings farther down and scrambled inside the mechanism. Suspending herself by one of the upper bars she curled in on herself, releasing her inner emo and letting the shadows hide her as she listened above.

Loki was raging, whether he was swinging down each ring or actually landing on them with his feet, it sounded like the Hulk himself was coming after her. Taking a deep, she pressed herself against the wall as a different type of Mean Green came closer, getting angrier the lower he had to descend.

"Oh, a game of cat and mouse? I do love a good chase." _BOOM!_

"I am tiring of these games, little bug." _CRASH!_

"I am running out of time and I am running out of patience!" _BANG!_

"Where are you, you insignificant ant?!" _SMASH!_

" _WHERE ARE YOU?!"_ Loki screeched as he landed on the next ring.

Seph didn't give pause. Kicking out, she caught him in the chest, sending him flying into the other wall, just barely catching himself on the bar to keep from falling again into the space where he'd launched his brother.

Shifting to better position herself on the bar, Seph faced her now devolving opponent. This was getting bad. Loki was obviously losing it - or already _lost_ it, but he'd never shown such blatant signs of insanity. Before he'd been amused by their little games. Now he was pissed.

The problem was, without any real equipment, Seph could barely handle him in a good nood, let alone with a temper rivalling Zeus on a stormy day.

Especially when he still had that damned scepter.

Loki straightened up, pushing unkempt stray hair out of his face as he faced her with a maniac look in his eyes and an unpleasant grin stretching across his face.

"Oh, I've got you know," he chuckled as he swung his staff, letting an arc of power toward her knees. She jumped high, grabbing the scaffolding she had held previously, but he just sent another charge towards her hand.

Yelping, she dropped to another level but didn't get any reprieve. Covering her head, she rolled quickly as he sent more blast her way running along the edge.

Then the world went blue and she was thrown off her feet and into free fall before she landed again a few rungs lower.

The ocean was roaring in her ears.

Groaning, she braced herself but she could barely hear the sudden _boom!_ that crashed not too far behind her, air dispersing under them as the same _clink clink clink_ resounded through her head instead of the room with every step closer.

There was a hand at her throat, lifting her in the air and then raging blue eyes, reminding her of short-cropped sandy hair, a mischievous smile with a thick pale scar across his face as lips twisted up before blue eyes turning gold wanting glory that was promised _,_ only what was _his_.

 _Where's the glory in repeating what others have already done?_

There was a pinch at her chest, and suddenly, it was quiet.

And then…

Nothing.

oOoOoOo

 **|| Andrew**

"What do you mean she's been detained!" Andrew yelled over his new comm unit.

Both Rogers and Stark were walking slightly behind him, Stark still in the suit, but he paid them no attention.

"Listen," Widow began, "there was an issue, and she was causing problems. We had to-"

"Had to, my ass," he hissed as he entered the main area again. There were scorch marks and bodies still lining the walls, but they didn't catch his attention. Instead, he turned his eyes to Fury, standing behind his post in the center of the room. "I don't want excuses I want answers. Where. Is. My. _Girlfriend_?" he demanded, looking Fury straight in the eye as the man balanced on his railing.

"Look here-" the man began, only to be interrupted by a new voice.

"She's gone," someone gasped at the door. Andrew turned to see a man in a plain suit and tie, minus the jacket. The remnants of the missing jacket seemed to be tied around his stomach over a still bleeding wound. He looked tired, like he had just escaped the fire to be thrown into a meat grinder that was _also_ on fire. Rogers ran over to help the man sit at the conference table

Andrew couldn't care less.

"What do you mean," he gritted out, fist clenched at his side, "that she's gone."

The man just sighed as he sat. "Just that. I went to Loki's cell to try and stop him from escaping but it didn't work. He ended up trapping Thor in the cage instead and hurtling him towards earth. When he turned to me, the girl - I don't know, she got out of the cage somehow and held him off."

The man caught Fury's eyes as he continued. "She had ice powers of some sort. Used it to make a sword and then fought Loki up and down the detainment room. I didn't see anything but I heard explosions, yelling, and then nothing. When i went to look again, neither of them were there."

Silence filled the room before Andrew let out a yell of frustration, clutching his hair, before slamming his fist against the table.

"No," he said, his voice brokering no room for discussion. "Not again." He turned to the director, spine straight as he spoke. "Now that you and yours have made such of mess of this, I'm taking over. I will not let your incompetence and self-serving ideals mess with me and my family."

Fury bristled and braced himself even more on the rail, narrowing his eye at Andrew, disdain clear in his eyes. "And what, precisely, does that mean."

"It means that I've got some calls to make. You've shown that you don't have the power to get this under control so I'm gonna get some," the demigod said before turning and sweeping out of the room completely.

"And how do you plan on doing that," Fury demanded. Andrew stopped at the door and snorted.

"I guess, you'll have to live in suspense," he said before leaving the room completely, phone already in hand.

"Well that went well," Stark said, watching the scene with mirth in his eyes. Several people rolled their eyes while Fury finally leaning back. "Shut up," he growled before moving towards Hill, who was sat at a desk not too far behind him.

Stark snorted himself before moving to help Rogers, who was lifting Coulson up from his chair.

"What do you think he meant by all that?" Rogers asked as they both grabbed an arm.

"I'm not sure," Stark shrugged, "but whatever it is, things are about to get intersting."

"More than aliens invading and gods falling to our earth? I'll pass, thanks."

"Yeah, well we might not have a choice," Coulson grunted as they made their way down the hall. "The thing to wonder is that in all of this, those two barely seemed fazed, and after seeing that girl in action, I doubt this is their first time in a situation like this. So he real questions is just what have they been through, what are they are they hiding, and-"

"What the hell are they," Stark finished with a pensive look on his face.

* * *

 **And that's all for now! Thanks again for all the support. I know I didn't do any shout-outs - mostly because it would take me another day to finish then and I've _kinda_ got a midterm coming up - but I read your reviews! I'll keep finding time for all of these stories as long as you guys keep liking it. I would like to say I'll get this chapter up soon...but that's kind of relative. Either way, next chapter is probably when we get introduced to a few more helping hands and where the plot really deviates so stay tuned! **

**Thanks for reading and please review!**

 **~SM**


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